Elite California city waives gas ban for celebrity chef

The City of Palo Alto last week announced it is making an exception to its natural gas ban for celebrity chef José Andrés after he demanded access to gas.

Palo Alto, an affluent city which serves as the economic hub for Silicon Valley and home to Stanford University, has outlawed natural gas lines in new buildings beginning this year to “fight climate change”. New buildings must be completely electrified and use strictly electric appliances.

But not everyone must comply with the new law.

José Andrés is an award-winning chef and world-famous restaurateur. Aside from winning the James Beard award, he was presented with the National Humanities Medal in 2016 by President Barack Obama, who lauded Andrés as "the quintessential American success story." Andrés also appeared as a guest star on Michelle Obama’s food show for children on Netflix. In 2015 the chef famously nixed plans to open a restaurant in a Washington, DC hotel owned by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.

But in addition to his culinary career, Andrés is also an avowed climate messianist. In 2021, he launched a $1 billion fund to “fight climate disasters”. Last year, he joined the Climate Migration Council alongside prominent political figures. 

“Climate change is real! Food sources will drastically disappear! We are taking food for granted,a big famine is coming! Unless we take Food seriously and we make drastic changes in the way humanity moves forward,mass migrations about to increase,Food is a National Security Issue,” Andrés tweeted last year.

But the chef took a different tack recently when the “fight for climate change” threatened to impact his new Mediterranean cuisine restaurant, Zaytinya.

Andrés’ lawyers contested the natural gas ban, claiming that the new restaurant relies on “traditional cooking methods that require gas appliances to achieve its signature, complex flavors.” If it were forced to adhere to the gas ban like the city’s other residents, his lawyers said, the restaurant would be forced to “alter its signature five-star menu”.

The attorneys also argued that the application for the project was submitted in 2019 and the gas line was approved by the city in 2021. City officials recently revised the building code, which requires its tenants to go all-electric and reduce “greenhouse gas emissions”.

But it may have been the threat of pulling out that convinced the city to allow Andrés to sit out the “fight against climate change”.

“Zaytinya cannot compromise the caliber of its cuisine and reputation, and if [mall operator Simon Property Group] SPG cannot provide gas in Building EE, Zaytinya will likely choose not to locate within the City,” wrote the lawyers. “This would be an unfortunate loss for the residents of Palo Alto, as well as a compensable loss for which SPG would be forced to seek redress."

The City of Palo Alto last week agreed to allow the exception for Andrés, though other buildings in the same development must comply with the gas ban.

“Except for this one-off situation, Palo Alto’s all-electric requirement is being implemented for all new projects and substantial remodels. Building electrification is critical to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Electric appliances and building systems provide clean and healthy environments in homes and businesses and in many respects, the new technologies perform better than the gas-emitting appliances they are replacing,” said the city in a statement.

The crusade against the widespread use of natural gas was launched by the Biden administration in January, when US Consumer Product Safety Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. proposed a ban on gas stoves. He claimed they cause indoor pollution linked to child asthma, though the study cited by Trumka Jr. and mainstream media shows no such link.

This month, New York became the first state to ban natural gas stoves and furnaces in most new buildings. The regulations, which will take effect next year, prohibit appliances which use fossil fuels — such as propane heating — from all new residential buildings, which will need to use all-electric appliances starting in 2025. Hospitals, laundromats and restaurants will be exempt.